innominefandomcom-20200213-history
Role
Roles are constructed identities used by celestials as cover. They have varying degrees of depth and "reality", based on how completely they've been written into the Symphony. Elements There are two elements of a role: Status and Level. Status refers to how powerful, wealthy, famous, etc. the Role is within the human world. Janitors are 1, CEOs are 6. Each point of Status above 2 gives a +1 to reaction rolls. (This is a change from the "each point of status gives +1" rule in the corebook.) Humans also have Status. Level refers to how "real" the Role is. Humans obviously do not have Level, by virtue of being genuine humans. Level is important for determining how well the Role will protect the celestial from detection. (See below.) Roles and Disturbance Disturbances resulting from the execution of a celestial's Role are sometimes masked by that Role. This applies only to events that one would expect from that Role: a chef who murders a patron with kitchen knives is not behaving within the typical boundaries of her Role, but a bodyguard who shoots a would-be assassin is. In the event of such an occupationally-justified disturbance, roll against Corporeal Forces + Role Level. If successful, there is no disturbance. Example: Samplargk the Calabite has a Role as a mob enforcer, at level 4. He has 4 Corporeal Forces. If his boss orders him to kill someone (i.e. a human someone), and he does so, he rolls against 8 (4 Corporeal Forces + Role Level 4). If he rolls 8 or less, there is no disturbance for offing the human. Roles and Lying Characters do not need to roll Lying to relate information about their Roles. The Role is ingrained in the vessel, allowing even a celestial who is not particularly good at acting to readily "slip into character". In essence, imagine the Role was a real human: if the human would not be lying, there is no need to roll the skill. Detect Lies won't pick it up, for the same reason. Of course, they still -are- lying. As a result, Seraphim can't take advantage of this, and the Seraphic resonance will identify a celestial talking about his Role as though it were true as a liar, if (per the Roles and Resonances rule below) the Seraph's CD equals or exceeds the Role's level. Servitors of Litheroy, the Archangel of Revelations, are not allowed Roles at all; to them, Roles are lying to the Symphony itself. Roles and Resonance Roles can also shield a celestial from certain resonances and other supernatural powers that gather information about the target. If the check digit of the resonance roll is less than the Role's level, the character using the resonance (or other information-gathering power) gets information about the Role. The basic idea here is to imagine the Role as a complete individual, existing simultaneously with the celestial. Example: Sampliel the Cherub has a Role as Sara Sample, a police officer, at level 4. If Noziel the Malakite resonates her with a check digit of 3 or less, Noziel gets information about Sara Sample, as though she were an ordinary human. This extends to deeds in Sara Sample's fictitious prior life, as well as to deeds that Sampliel performed while in the guise of Sara Sample, but not to deeds Sampliel may have performed in other Roles or on the Ethereal/Celestial planes. Similarly, the moral code being used as a reference is Sara Sample's (hypothetical) moral code, not Sampliel's. Sampliel might not care about not ticketing a friend's car, but Sara Sample, being an ostensible police officer, has violated her personal honor to some degree by doing so. Bear in mind that resonance results are not always conclusive about whether the subject is human or celestial. If an Elohite's resonance says, "If (the Elohite) shoves his friend, he'll punch (the Elohite).", it generally remains ambiguous, for instance. Category:The Symphony